The Ideapad turned five on November 1. How long ago is that? When I started this blog, my computer—a 233 mhz Apple G3 with a 4GB hard drive—was still new. (I upgraded the 4GB drive to an 80GB Maxtor two weeks ago.)
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Today I finally switched my site search from an Atomz engine to Google’s free search option. Yeah, Google may run text ads next to my search results, but Atomz had stopped performing well. Atomz’s free engine has a 500-page limit, and the spider was digging into individual-item weblog display pages, then not including them in the search results anyway. Odd and inconvenient.
Google doesn’t always register database query pages in its search results either, so I have returned to making monthly fixed-code backups of the Ideapad to improve the search engine performance. Makes for a nice memento, too.
For those of you scoring at home, I also combined the search and contact info into a single page and updated the Ideapad sidebar for the first time in way too long.
Career-wise, I am happily moving beyond the realm of “web designer” this year. My ambitions have my mind elsewhere: usability assessments, strategy analysis and planning, an MBA.
As a result, the actual build-out of my new corporate site (which should go live any day now) took a while to get started. As I work on it, I feel like a teenager getting back on a bicycle after receiving a driver’s license: I know how it’s done, and I’m good at it, but I’d so rather be in the new ride.
Of course, the need to know HTML, CSS and browser compatibility are far from irrelevant to my career, so it’s good to regain my proverbial sea legs. After the launch I shall dive headfirst back into RSS and XML feeds.
But that bicycle only gets me so far. And I can’t wait to start driving every day.
My hometown is finally razing the eyesore commercial structure in the center of town to build a new one along with more than 100 new homes. The nostalgic and curious among you can see the dilapidated old building in an upcoming episode of “The Sopranos.”
Spent the day at Ad:Tech yesterday. Sometimes a conference floor still feels like 1999—lots of companies with forward-sounding names, free candy everywhere, and plenty of mine-is-bigger-than-yours plasma screens.
The tone is different now, though. Lots of people are inquiring about personal, not business-development, opportunities (myself not excluded). Conference floor space is far smaller than it used to be. And the free swag is much more humble.
Sat in on a decent blog-marketing panel moderated by Rick Bruner, but it was doomed by faulty T1 wiring and an end-of-day timeslot. But hey, one third of the New York’s “emerging chattering-class VIPs,” so I can’t complain. (Although Anil needs a haircut. Heh.)
New York magazine has a fun column this week about the New York media blog movers and shakers (we know better than to call it an A-list). Jason Kottke, we hardly knew you.
Dale Peck gets five splashy pages in the Sunday Times Magazine this week. Great photos, too.
- You’re curious, right? Aghast yet mesmerized. You want to read more. If so, Dale Peck has done his job. … The question arises: Why should we care what Dale Peck thinks? The short answer is, He’s interesting.
Jake’s prominent features of my graduate school experience report mirrors my own, right down to the HP12C calculator (but not the Dr Pepper; I drink Diet Coke and spring water).
The New York Times’ front page headlines looked different to me this morning, and sure enough, they are.
- In place of a miscellany of headline typefaces that have accumulated in its columns over the last century, the newspaper is settling on a single family, Cheltenham, in roman and italic versions and various light and bold weights.
Action is being taken today in the Middle East by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front–or, as they call themselves in their signage, the MILF.